Use A Big Magnet To Set The Time

This bulky package is a Nixie tube wristwatch. We still like [Woz’s] watch better but this one has a few nice tricks of its own. Notably, there aren’t any buttons to set the time. Instead, a large magnet is used to actuate a magnetic switch inside the body. Speaking of enclosures, the case is aluminum and the face plate is polycarbonate but looks like it’s been vacuum formed. Check out the clip after the break.

Good luck getting through anywhere with that without everyone thinking what a massive freak you are and rightly so!
This is not good in any way, its just unnecessary.
I’m pretty you wont be able to wear this for a whole day without your wrist breaking, the battery running out, magnets everywhere resetting it, or getting beat up for looking like a mental.
380 Euro you must be absolutely insane.
The only person i would tolerate wearing this would be the creator, and even then only for a day.
If i ever met anyone who actually wore this i simply don’t know what i would do, because i would be too convinced i was dreaming.

That watch is almost the epitome of ugly watches. If there is a watch that says “Good looking women stay away from me,” then this one is probably it. Good luck getting stuck somewhere where you don’t have a large magnet and you need to change the time. Then with all that space to work with, the band looks too flimsy to hold that brick of a watch. I dunno, I am finding this one a hard sell.

Sorry about the double post, did you say 380 Euro or did you mean 38 Euro? Because for 380 Euro you are not going to sell many of these things. I know nixie tubes are all the rage, but there is no damn way I am going to pay 380 Euro or its Dollar equivalent for something that only tells time. This thing is going to have to launch missiles, or teargas, or have a small computer on it somewhere for me to even think for a moment I would buy this. Then the ugly would stop that moment.

@zool You might be right, but on that site you are mentioning there is a quote about the watch that the sellers have posted themselves, “If I wanted to buy a watch that guaranteed I would never get laid, I certainly wouldn’t have to spend that much on it.”

But at least the one you are mentioning looks something more like a watch. This one does not.

Why using a big magnet? A small neodynium magnet is enough. On the other hand, it should not be too sensitive to weak magnets like loudspeakers. Regular mechanical watches do not like magnets either. The time setting mode has a time-out timer to prevent accidental time resettling.

The battery type was chosen after testing and also because they are small and cheaply available on Ebay. A 9 V battery would work as well. The current from the battery to the switching mode power supply is modulated so that the smps is on for 50-60 % of the time the tubes are lit.

Why two batteries? The larger battery is for the smps to provide 170 V for the tubes. The lithium cell is for the 3 V logic circuit, and it lasts longer than the “anode battery”.

The watch weights 60 grams. The metal band is far from flimsy. You could use a plastic band too.

I like it, its damn sexy; but I would build not buy one for myself. Then again I have a rule with magnetic objects, they stay away from me and my toys. Not to mention I dont wear a watch (except for my pocket watch and thats only on occasion)

Nice idea, extremely bad design, insanely bad pricing. Two batteries? Really? By the way, can you say “waterproof”? I thought I was getting that for 380EUR. I mean, you could’ve at least placed the coin cell _inside_ the enclosure. Oh well. Something I know I’ll never buy.

The enclosure still got enough free space to fit another 3 watches, replacement batteries, screwdrivers etc in it. You might use that watch as a storage to carry around at your wrist!

I’d like to build a nixie wristwatch myself. I have the electronics sorted out, but I’d have troubles to build a proper case (it would end up looking something like this one). Any ideas where i could get good case+wrist band?

Man, what’s with all the haters in this post? I think it’s cool. And if any of you nerds followed fashion, you would know big watches are in. I don’t follow fashion either, but you’d have to be blind to miss the size of watches nowadays.